When undertaking any substantial print order request, such as the printing of business cards for all the partners of a particular firm, or printing leaflets for a promotional campaign run by a fast food restaurant chain, or indeed the printing of training manuals for a large number of employees, one of the most important aspects is sourcing a suitable printer, otherwise known as a print supplier, to carry out the print order request. It is imperative that a reputable print supplier is employed to undertake the print order request within the desired specifications of the print customer. Although integral to the fulfillment of any print order request, this is also seen as an extremely time consuming and laborious task to carry out. Very often, with limited budgets available, it is imperative to obtain the best value for the print customer whilst at the same time ensuring that the content of the print order request arrives in a timely manner. In other circumstances it may be imperative that the print order request is received as a matter of urgency and cost is a less important factor. In order to choose the most appropriate print supplier, the print customer must contact numerous print suppliers to compare and contrast the service levels, capacity, capability and pricing structures of each of the print suppliers before making a choice of print supplier to carry out a particular job.
In many cases, print customers develop a pool of reliable print suppliers that are able to carry out their printing requirements for them. However this is not always satisfactory as in many instances the print customers will have a print order request which has not been fulfilled by a particular print supplier previously and may not be within the suite of services provided by that particular print supplier. In these circumstances significant time may be lost by the print customer in transmitting an order to their print supplier only to find that the print supplier cannot successfully complete the order in the time frame provided or in certain circumstances would not be able to provide the service at all. The print customer must then look to other print suppliers to complete the job. In certain circumstances the print supplier may be able to carry out the job but it may be beyond their normal capacity and therefore they would be unable to carry out the job within the specified time limit. The selection of a suitable print supplier therefore becomes an iterative process which can waste valuable time and resources of the print customer.
Various methods and systems have been proposed to facilitate fulfillment of printing requirements. One such method and system is that described in European Patent Application EP 1,197,841 in the name of Hewlett-Packard Company. EP1,197,841 describes a method and system of brokering print services over the internet. The method provides a print brokering system that unites customers having specific printing needs with print providers that can fulfill those printing needs. Data files of the print job are stored in a print brokering system controller for subsequent downloading to a print provider. The data files are downloaded to the print provider once a print provider has been selected from a list of print providers by the customer.
US2004/0039647, in the name of Roche, describes an online marketplace for print services that attempts to balance the interests of a plurality of users of print services with the interests of a plurality of print service providers. Print orders are placed through the internet and are routed through a print merchant. U.S. Pat. No. 7,027,175, in the name of Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., relates to a method and system in which the reprocessing of print orders is simplified. The method allows for print orders to be periodically reviewed and reprocessed at the request of the customer.
Although very useful, there is a need for a method and system that simplifies the process for the customer. It is an object therefore of the present invention to overcome at least some of these problems and provide a method of processing print order requests in a print system as well as a system for processing those print order requests that is efficient and simple to operate to satisfy print order requests in accordance with the requirements of print customers.